Documents In Early Christian Thought

Extracts from the writings of the Early Christian fathers, covering the main areas of Christian thought.

"New documents illustrating early Christianity, 1976 reviews two or three hundred inscriptions and papyri which were published for the first time, or reissued, in 1976. They have been selected from several thousand Greek documents which appeared in that year. Many are reproduced in full, with translation, and extensive notes, and discussion on points of historical and philological interest relating to the New Testament or to the early history of Christianity. A Judaica section is also included."--Back cover.

Professor Tillich analyzes the development of Christian theology.

This series seeks to keep New Testament and early church researchers, teachers, and students abreast of emerging documentary evidence by reproducing and reviewing recently published Greek inscriptions and papyri that illumine the context in which the Christian church developed. Produced by the Ancient History Documentary Research Centre at Macquarie University, the New Docs volumes broaden the context of biblical studies and other related fields and provide a better understanding of the historical and social milieus of early Christianity.

Focusing on major figures such as St. Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa, as well as a host of less well known thinkers, Robert Wilken (the author of The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity) chronicles the emergence of a specifically Christian intellectual tradition. He provides an introduction to early Christian thought on topics including early Christian worship, Christian poetry and the spiritual life, the Trinity, Christ, the Bible, and icons, and shows that the energy and vitality of early Christianity arose from within the life of the Church. While early Christian thinkers drew on the philosophical and rhetorical traditions of the ancient world, it was the versatile vocabulary of the Bible that loosened their tongues and minds and allowed them to construct the world anew, intellectually and spiritually. These thinkers were not seeking to invent a world of ideas, Wilken shows, but rather to win the hearts of men and women and to change their lives. Early Christian thinkers set in place a foundation that has endured. Their writings are an irreplaceable inheritance, and Wilken shows that they can still be heard as living voices within contemporary culture.

The roots of many 20th-century questions lie in the ancient dialogue between the early Christians and culture of the old classical world. This book takes three Christian thinkers: Justin, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, and shows what the debate looked like from the Christian side.